10/22/2020
Rudy Giuliani Denies He Did Anything Wrong in New ‘Borat’ Movie
President Trump’s personal lawyer has become caught up in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new “Borat” satire after he was shown with an actress in an edited scene.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, at the White House last month. He has recently been involved in pushing corruption accusations against Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, at the White House last month. He has recently been involved in pushing corruption accusations against
President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, has become caught up in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new “Borat” satire, shown in an edited scene following an actress impersonating a reporter into a bedroom and at one point reclining on the bed and putting his hands in his pants in what he later said was an attempt to adjust his clothing.
Still photos and descriptions of the scene from Mr. Cohen’s new “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” which will be released on Friday, were posted on social media early Wednesday after The Guardian reported that the movie contained “a compromising scene” featuring Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor.
Late Wednesday, Mr. Giuliani called into WABC radio in New York to say that he had been tucking in his shirt after removing microphone wires. He chalked the scene’s early release up to a scheme to discredit his recent attempts to push corruption accusations against Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s son Hunter Biden.
“The Borat video is a complete fabrication,” Mr. Giuliani, 76, tweeted after he got off the air. “At no time before, during, or after the interview was I ever inappropriate. If Sacha Baron Cohen implies otherwise he is a stone-cold liar.”
A clip that surfaced on social media, heavily edited to fit the actor’s signature mockumentary format, begins with Mr. Giuliani seated on a couch, answering questions. Soon after, the actress, who speaks with a heavy Eastern European accent, asks the former mayor if they can continue their discussion in the bedroom. Mr. Giuliani agrees, and is then shown sitting on a bed, as she appears to take his microphone off and he appears to pat her.
The segment then cuts to the image of Mr. Giuliani, reclining on the bed, placing his hands down the front of his pants.
“I had to take off the electronic equipment,” Mr. Giuliani told the hosts of the “Curtis & Juliet Show.” “And when the electronic equipment came off, some of it was in the back and my shirt came a little out, although my clothes were entirely on. I leaned back, and I tucked my shirt in, and at that point, at that point, they have this picture they take which looks doctored, but in any event, I’m tucking my shirt in. I assure you that’s all I was doing.”
The scene ends with Mr. Cohen, dressed in an outlandish pink costume, bursting into the room and shouting that the woman, played by the actor Maria Bakalova, was 15 years old (she is 24, according to IMDb).
Mr. Giuliani said Mr. Cohen was frightened by his call to the police, bolted away and left him talking with the filmmaker’s lawyer.
The former mayor is not the first Republican politician to be ensnared in one of Mr. Cohen’s cringe-inducing pranks.
In 2018, Mr. Cohen tricked the former G.O.P. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama into giving him an interview for the Showtime satire show “Who is America?”
Later in 2018, a Republican lawmaker in Georgia resigned after he was fooled into repeatedly yelling a racial epithet on Mr. Cohen’s Showtime series.
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, accused Mr. Cohen of pretending to be a disabled veteran to land an interview with her, which she said was part of his repeated attempts to humiliate and “devalue” middle-class Americans.
“He’s got a lot of people — Newt Gingrich,” added Mr. Giuliani, who insisted he had not been taken in by Mr. Cohen. “He got Donald Trump before he was president.”
